


Forge Your Own Chains

by PickUpUrPh0ne



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: 2x21, Episode: s04e18 Chapter Seventy-Five: Lynchian, F/M, Found Footage, Gang Violence, Hurt No Comfort, Introspection, Not Really Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:40:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28181787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PickUpUrPh0ne/pseuds/PickUpUrPh0ne
Summary: Set approx. 4x18. After the video store raid Betty finds a real recording of the night Jughead was nearly killed by the Ghoulies (2x21) and it forces her to painfully face Jughead’s mortality again. The footage aggravates escalating tensions in their relationship.
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Forge Your Own Chains

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as an exercise in how to write about the 2x21 beat down in a more dynamic way and developed into (I hope!) an exploration of what pushed Bughead to fall apart at the end of season 4. 
> 
> The title is a track from the album "Maker vs. Now-Again" (2010). 
> 
> TW: Physical, knife and taser violence

Ever since the FBI raided the collection of snuff films hiding out in video store something new had been nagging Betty. There were a lot of gears turning in her head these days but she couldn’t get one of those tapes out of her mind. 

The tapes would gather dust in Charles’ office until he could get some administrative roadblock removed and so they could go onto professional analysis. They were just sitting there as if they were mindless paperwork and not the evidence of the dirty underbelly of her hometown. 

She was at his office alone that Thursday evening after Charles had bailed on their hang out. He was called back to DC for a last minute meeting. Despite being invited to come Jughead probably was off somewhere on his own. If Betty had to guess she’d say he was likely hiding out in the bunker but potentially studying. 

And those tapes were just sitting there across the dully lit room. It was really driving her mad and she couldn’t help but look. 

Innocently sitting on the top of the box was that tape she couldn’t forget.

Skinning The Snake

It’s an obvious illusion to the Serpents. But in her gut there’s a feeling that there’s something in there that she has got to see.

Her self control slips and she grabs the VHS to shove into the dusty VCR. The blue screen snaps to black with a static click. 

From the camera’s line of sight you can see a single figure in leather approach a sea of avant garde punks. Betty’s gut twists in anticipation when she recognizes the now defunct group of Ghoulies. The blonde at the front must be Penny. The darkness is illuminated by a roaring trash can fire just offset to the left.

“The sacrificial lamb arrives.” Penny’s voice gloats. Her nasal tone cuts through the chatter of the crowd. 

Betty’s whole world tilts on its access. Suddenly she knows all too well what she’s about to see but she makes no move to stop it.

Her brain tries and fails to find it’s way back to equilibrium while the tape plays out in front of her. 

She can’t hear the brief exchange they must have been had on screen. Jughead rarely gives up the chance to get a word in edgewise. Even when he’s marching to his death - she knows that to be true for a fact.

When the shock wears off and her vision becomes clear once again she can see Jughead throw a punishing right hook to Malachi’s jaw. 

And for a single second she hopes history will rewrite itself on film in front of her and Jughead will walk away victorious from this hellscape. That he’s not there to give himself up all over again. But she knows that her wish won’t come true. 

Malachi sucker punches him straight to the gut and Jughead crumples to the ground. The camera captures an increasingly large crowd circling Jughead’s prone form. 

Before he can get back to his feet there are five, ten, then maybe even fifteen people start throwing punches and kicks in his direction.

The cameraman himself even gets a few harsh licks in that send Jughead barreling back to the ground. Once he backs away and the chaotic turbulence slows there's a clear view of Jughead. He’s curled tightly in the fetal position, desperately trying to protect himself. 

Even as the camera continues to shake and glitch Betty can see something feral in Jughead’s eyes. Like a mad man desperate to flee towards safety but anchored to the spot by a calling. A calling greater than his own life.

“I want my pound of flesh.” Penny calls out, her voice twisting like nails on a chalkboard, “Take his Daddy’s jacket off of him. I’m looking for a specific piece of real estate.”

Betty can’t tell if she’s hyperventilating or hasn’t let a single breath escape. She knows what is coming or what came and she still can’t do anything to stop it.

But Jughead won’t budge from his position on the ground no matter how hard the punks tear at him. Betty’s heart swells with pride at his stubbornness. 

“I got this one,” the Ghoulie mutters entering the shaky frame.

She can’t hold on to that feeling of admiration for long because someone on screen is pointing his switchblade at Jughead. 

There was a point in her life where Betty wasn’t as intimately familiar with the whooshing sound of a switch blade but those days are long gone. She knows how much damage they can carelessly deal. She’s seen everything bloody gashes from fights gone so wrong to deep lacerations from absent-minded handling. She’s even nicked herself on occasion. 

She searches her memory thinking of the scars on Jughead’s body, wondering which one is about to be dealt right in front of her.

“I have a better idea.” Malachi asserts. The smugness in his voice sends shivers down Betty’s spine but what scares her even more is the giddiness to it.

From the darkness a light flashes and cracks for a millisecond in Malachi’s hand like a bolt of lightning harnessed. If Betty’s face could fall any further it would have in the moment. 

The appearance of the taser energizes the crowd with voices cheering and hollering for the show to go on.

“Slither on over snakey boy…” Malachi sings ominously approaching Jughead who stayed curled tightly on the ground. 

Jughead clearly catches a glimpse of the taser with barely a second to brace himself when Malachi plunges the taser down against his covered back.

His body moves strangely and stiffly. There’s something deeply inhuman about the way he contorts. Betty strains to hear his cries over the cheering crowd. Every second he’s under this torture feels like hours to Betty. When Malachi finally pulls away exactly five seconds later Jughead lays tense but malleable on the ground. 

A fragile numbness washes over her. Betty absently notices the tears running down her face as the Ghoulies roughly pull the jacket off of Jughead’s limp frame. 

A few Ghoulies line up to take their place to hold Jughead down as Penny approaches with her switchblade in hand. 

“An eye for an eye, Juggie.” Penny croons, outlining the Serpent tattoo on his right arm with her knife. 

The camera shakes vigorously before zooming into the carnage. The shot is framed by Penny’s hands pulling the skin of the tattoo painly taut. 

Not wasting a second Penny makes her first slice. Crimson blood quickly wells up and floods the jagged wound. Unlike earlier the crowd is quiet. There’s nothing to obscure the sounds of Jughead’s agonizing screaming and crying. 

Uncharacteristically, Betty can’t look at the screen any longer and averts her eyes. The wailing was ringing in her ears. A knot coiled increasingly tightly in her gut keeps her from removing or even pausing the tape.

She can’t look up again until a few minutes later she heard the crackle of the taser again. 

On the screen, Penny’s no longer inflicting her torture but Jughead is still spralled out on the ground helplessly. Malachi is approaching quickly with his taser again. Mercilessly he jabs the weapon into Jughead’s gut, hardly protected only by a thin layer of clothing. 

Abruptly and violently Betty remembers the small circular scars on his midsection. She noticed them because they were too pale to be birthmarks but too dark and even to blend into his skin. When she asked him about it casually he responded with a suspicious amount of nonchalance. He tried to play it off as a beauty mark then even claimed he hadn’t really noticed them before. 

Those days she had been too caught up with dealing with The Farm to push him on it. So she let it go and the marks just became another part of the landscape of his body. 

She blinked at the screen expecting Malachi to let up with the taser in an instant after counting to five seconds but Malachi pushed onwards with the taser. Jughead continued to twitch unnaturally and his grunts died on his lips. Betty’s eyes widen in panic. She had read the statistics on how dangerous stun guns and tasers could be, especially if used incorrectly. 

This was never a part of the script. She never even knew...

It was suddenly as if history could rewrite itself. As if Jughead wasn’t going to make it out alive. As if she was going to lose him all over again. Or was it for the first time?

When Malachi let up with the taser Betty finally could breathe again. And she was able to remember that this was not where everything ended. He would survive everything they would deal. Even as his body laid bonelessly face down in the mud.

“What the fuck, Mal!” Penny yelled from off screen, “I wasn’t fucking done with him yet.”

“I get carried away! What can I say?” he defended light heartedly. 

“Well, did you kill him already?”

Malachi bent down back to the ground over Jughead's prone form. The darkness of the night obscured his actions then it’s only a moment later Malachi gets back up.

“Ah, shit. Yeah he’s not breathing. Shows over.” he added indifferently, if not disappointed. 

Betty can’t suppress the sob bubbling up her throat. The voices and noises in the video become indecipherable but the camera man remains at Jughead’s side for a second longer, zooming in on the carnage.

Anticlimactically, the video cuts out and the screen goes back to glowing blue. Betty goes back to finishing her homework.

\----- 

A few hours later once she’s ready to head back home to Elm St Betty reminds herself to rewind the tape and return it to the box. However, she takes special care to not look at the screen as she rewinds through the footage.

Something about having seen that video makes Betty shift uncomfortably. It’s not just the fact people were buying the video to watch for their own enjoyment. Or the gore. Or the indifference towards human suffering. She hates all of those things without a shadow of a doubt. There’s nothing complicated about that.

But there’s a nagging sense of something else, too. Like she’s seen something she shouldn’t. And Jughead, he would be upset if he knew she’d seen this, too. As if she’d violated his privacy in some irredeemable way.

It had been years since everything with the Ghoulies went down but in all of that time Jughead had never spoken a single word about that night. She never had even known Malachi tortured him like that. There was no way he didn’t remember something that like. Betty was certain she would never forget what she saw today.

Once he was out of the hospital it was clear he was trying to put it behind as quickly as possible. He acted as if no one tried to murder him. But Betty saw every flinch and panicked expression. She always carefully considered how she touched his scarred arm and never pushed him on the matter. 

Selfishly, she wondered why her kindness was never enough to breach that boundary. 

Betty wasn’t sure if after the guilt comes rage or inconsolable sadness. 

How many times was Jughead going to walk to his death? How many times would she be witness to his suffering? His death mask?

Only to see Jughead lock himself away time after time until just silver scars remained. 

Betty roughly shoves the tape back into the box, willing herself to not bury it down towards the bottom. She doesn’t want to leave any evidence that the tapes have been tampered with by her.

It was obvious that all the fear he carried with him was back full force. She saw it in the way Jughead folded into himself like it was the only way to hold himself together. She saw the way he would break out into a cold sweat in class or stare blankly at the screen of his computer.

But Betty felt like she was crumbling too. She needed him and his kindness. The same kindness he’d always showed her since that day at Pop’s where he kissed the crescent shaped scars on her hands. Finding him brutalized in the woods hurt her too. Those days where she didn’t know if he would survive hurt her too. 

She wanted to grab him by the shoulders and scream and cry. She wanted to beg him to come back to her so they could face the world together like they used to do best. 

Betty pulls out a roll of packing tape. Instead of burying the tape at the bottom of the box she snuggly folds the flaps of the box together and reinforces the top with the tape. They would be more secure and the temptation to revisit them would be blunted. 

Forcing herself to inhale deeply, Betty reaches for her phone in the hopes of reaching Jughead. If she has any luck the call will connect even if he’s at the bunker.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought! Or feel free to drop some kudos!


End file.
